


The Positives of Snow

by ChazzaAndBird



Category: Unspecified Fandom
Genre: 3rd person, Arthur Knows About Merlin's Magic, Arthur likes snow, First story, Friendship, How do I tag?, Knights know about Merlin's magic, Magic, Merlin doesn't, Snow, Snowball Fight, merlin is cold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 09:30:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15838488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChazzaAndBird/pseuds/ChazzaAndBird
Summary: While traveling through the forest during a cold winter, the Knights of the Round Table and Arthur show Merlin what it means to have fun in the snow.Fluffy friendship fic!





	The Positives of Snow

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic on AO3, so please be nice! Any constructive criticism is welcome.
> 
>  
> 
> Disclaimer: Merlin is owned by BBC, regardless of how much I wish he was mine!

Merlin shivered, pulling his coat closer around him. The frigid cold was biting, and he felt miserable. It was winter, the snow was icy white, and Merlin’s horse’s hooves crunched with every step he took, almost in sync with Arthur’s beside him. The knight’s, Arthur’s and Merlin’s horses seemed uninhibited by the air, trotting along happily. Merlin looked at Arthur beside him and sighed.

Arthur ignored him.

Merlin sighed again, louder this time.

When he didn’t get a response, he exhaled even louder.

Arthur cracked.  
“  
What is it, Merlin?” he snapped.  
Merlin smirked, happy to finally be payed attention to. 

“I’m cold.” He drew the word out. 

“Well it’s not my fault you have no meat on your bones.. If anything, you’ve been getting skinnier since becoming court sorcerer.”

“Warlock.” Merlin butted in grumpily.

Ignoring him, Arthur continued. “Honestly Merlin, do you even eat?”

“He doesn’t drink either!” Gwaine cried out, sidling up next to them. “He‘s been to the tavern, like, once!”  
The rest of the knights chuckled.

“Of course, that is the part Gwaine’s mind automatically goes to.”  
Leon states, causing another round of laughter.

As everyone eased into casual chatter, Merlin thought of how easy it was to be a part of the fun, now that he had admitted to having magic. Two months ago, he had called all the knights of the round table and Gwen to a hunting trip, and with the support of Gaius, told them the truth.  
It had all come out, from arriving at Camelot to releasing the dragon. He had told them all how he was born with it, he had no choice, and told them about his (and Arthur’s) destinies. 

Trust was broken, and for a few weeks after that, it was all very awkward. Merlin was sure he had seen fear in the eyes of many of them a couple of times. The worst reaction, however, was Arthur. Though Merlin wasn’t sentenced to die, the betrayal in Arthur’s eyes was punishment enough. Every time he saw him, Merlin was hurt to the core. Luckily however, after a few weeks, things slowly began to change back to normal. Gwaine was the first, joking and happily chatting away, which Merlin was eternally grateful for. Gwaine had told him: “Magic or not, you’re still my friend.” Merlin (though he denied it profusely) had shed a few tears. Then it went Percival, Elyan, Leon, and finally Arthur (who had simply grasped Merlin’s shoulder and said nothing.) Now, surrounded by these friends, everything was back to normal, excluding the absence of the weight on Merlin’s shoulders.

“We should stop here.” Arthur’s voice jolted Merlin out of his thoughts, and he abruptly halted his horse and dismounted, along with the knights. 

“Tie up the horses, would you Merlin?” Arthur asked.  
Catching his drift, Merlin did so with a wave of his hand, also giving the young horses some water to drink. This showed how far Merlin’s relationship with everyone had gone; with him being able to do magic in there presence without them even flinching.  
Merlin again waved his hand, his eyes glowed, and tentatively sat down on a log that he had heated up, sighing at the warmth.  
He looked around at the unforgiving white, glaring at it. 

“Why does the snow have to be so…” Merlin stumbled for words.  
“Wet?” Gwaine suggested.  
“Cold?” Leon put in.  
“Frigid?” Elyan proposed.  
“Freezing?” Arthur offered.  
“Icy?” Percival recommended  
“Bad!” Merlin finished, shaking his head as the others sat around him on the other logs he warmed up. “There’s just no… positive, or good thing about it! Rain I can understand we need; it helps the crops, but this is horrid!”

Gwaine shook his head, his long hair flicking back and forth.  
“Snow is awesome! You can make snowmen and snow angels! Haven’t you ever played in the snow before?”

“Even I have.” Arthur put in. “When I was a younger, I was occasionally allowed out. Those were some of my happiest memories.”

“I had no chance to.” Merlin looked confused. “You guys all did?”  
Everyone nodded. 

“Then how did you have fun in winter?” Leon inquired. 

“Well, unless you call huddling around a small fire fun, we didn’t. When it was winter, there were low crops, and not as much food. Rations had to be given out. Everyone had to chip in, even the children, and because there was no medicine, we got sick a lot.”

“Oh. That must have… sucked.” Elyan said hesitantly.  
Merlin laughed. 

They all settled down for the night, ribbing and joking as they did so. Merlin absentmindedly made dinner.  
“Can’t you… you know, use magic to do that?” Arthur asked.

“Well, I could. But if I want it to be healthy, I need to make it by hand. And some people need to have a healthier diet…”

Gwaine made a sound that sounded suspiciously like burn but covered it up with a cough. The other knights laughed, and Merlin could see Arthur trying not to smile. 

“Merlin. Are you calling me fat?” Arthur said in mock-suspicion.

“No! I would never. I’m simply implying that your horse would want to carry less of a load, we don’t want his back to get sore.” Merlin grinned cheekily, laughing as Arthur tackled him off the log shouting: “I’ll show you sore!”

The night went on with merriment and laughter. Soon the fire had run cold, and the moon was high in the sky. 

“I’m gonna call it a night.” Merlin said, yawning tiredly. He gave a friendly wave as he headed towards his blanket, the different calls of “Goodnight!” following him.  
As Merlin’s head hit the ground and his breathing slowed, the knights gave each other looks.

“You know what we have to do, right?” Gwaine whispered.  
“Of course.” Arthur said in a voice equally as quiet.  
“We need to show Merlin how fun snow can be.” Percival finished.  
They planned for a little while, before following Merlin into a peaceful slumber.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The Next Morning

Merlin was jolted out of his sleep by something cold hitting his face. His magic immediately jumped to his aid, lashing out at the beings near him. Merlin jumped to his feet and rubbed the (was that snow?) out of his eyes, gaining sight. The view before him made Merlin blink.

“What happened?” He asked.  
The knights were all sprawled around the camp, groaning a little as they got up. The bedrolls (excluding Merlin’s) were packed up, the wood from the fire scattered, and the horses fed. The sun was a little way above the horizon. Unless there was trouble, the knights and Arthur would never be up this early. However, when he saw their grinning faces, Merlin relaxed a little.

“What happened?” He repeated.

“Well... “ Gwaine started, laughing at the ruffled hair and bewildered look on Merlin’s face. “There was one fun thing about snow we didn’t tell you about last night.”

“Snowball fights!” Percival filled in.  
Seeing Merlin’s confused look, Leon took pity and explained. 

“It’s where we throw balls of snow ate each other. There is some strategy to the game, though it is more of a children’s game.”  
When a look of recognition crossed Merlin’s face, Arthur asked:

“Do you want to play?”

Hiding an evil smirk, Merlin shrugged, pretending to think it over. 

“Well… I don’t see why not!” At that, Merlin dropped the snow he had been floating over everyone with glee, laughing as they shouted.  
At this, the most epic snowball war of all time (as Gwaine later described it) commenced. Leon hit Elyan, who in turn hit Gwaine, who nailed Arthur in the head. Percival was chasing everyone around with a huge clump of snow, and managed to bury Gwaine with it. Among this, Merlin was laughing, using his magic to get everyone at the same moment, and jumping out the way of the flying missiles by slowing time. As this went on, he hadn’t been hit once. 

When Arthur realized this, he sneaked over to Gwaine while the young warlock was focused on Percival.

“Truce, truce!” He whispered when Gwaine raised his arm.  
Arthur pointed towards Merlin.

“He hasn’t gotten hit by an inch of snow!”  
Gwaine grinned. “We have to gang up on him if we want to land a hit.”

“Go tell the others, I’ll distract him.” 

Merlin laughed with delight after clumping Percival with snow. This was the most fun he’d had in ages! The snow was all trampled, and the tree’s had hardly any snow left after Merlin had used it all.

“Hey! Merlin!” Spinning around, Merlin grinned at the young king who was holding a snowball in his hand. 

“Do you really think you can hit me?” Merlin called, smirking at the snow all through Arthur’s hair.

“Well, you know I could. You’re the clumsiest clotpole I know.” 

“Hey! That’s my word! And I’m too good at getting you to be hit.” Merlin egged him on.  
As they bantered back and forth, Merlin was too distracted to notice the knights sneaking up on him. Arthur’s mock affronted yelling easily covered the crunching of boots on snow. As the knights stopped right behind Merlin holding a large mound of snow, Arthur paused.  
“Merlin?” he asked with a grin.  
“What?”

“Look behind you.” Just as he turned, the large heap of frozen water was dumped right on his head. He sputtered and wiped the snow away from his eyes. When he raised his hand to retaliate, he was tackled to the ground by Arthur.  
They wrestled for a while, laughing and cursing. Arthur shoved snow in his clothes and Merlin squirmed away, jumping and shouting “Cold!”.  
The knights and Arthur chuckled; Merlin gave them mock glares.

“Truce?” He asked, panting.

“Sure!” Gwaine chirped. The others nodded, eyes twinkling.  
“Great.” And with that, Merlin then collapsed onto the ground, staring up at the sky.  
Percival joined him, and then Elyan, then Leon, and then Gwaine and Arthur. 

They all stared up at the sky as the clouds cleared and the sun shone through, melting all of the snow.


End file.
